Break Free Product Life Cycle

Most firms build their marketing strategies nearly the concept of the product life hertzthe idea that after introduction, products inevitably go with a course of growth, maturity, and decline. It doesnt have to be that way, says Harvard Business School marketing prof Youngme Moon. By status their products in unthought ways, companies can change how customers mentally categorise them. In doing so, they can flaw products lodged in the maturity phase backand launcher new products forwardinto the growth phase. The source describes three positioning strategies that marketers use to shift consumers thinking.Reverse positioning strips away set apart product attributes magic spell adding new ones (JetBlue, for example, withheld the evaluate first-class seating and in-flight meals on its planes while offering surprising perks like slash seats and extra legroom). Breakaway positioning associates the product with a radically unalike category (Swatch chose not to associate itself w ith ticket jewelry and instead entered the fashion supplemental category). And stealth positioning acclimates leery consumers to a new offering by cloaking the products received nature (Sony positioned its less-than-perfect household robot as a quirky pet).Clayton Christensen described how new, transparent technologies can upend a market. In an analogous way, these positioning strategies can forge the vulnerability of established categories to new positioning. A company can use these techniques to go on the offensive and transform a category by demolishing its handed-down boundaries. Companies that disrupt a category by means of positioning create a moneymaking(a) place to ply their waresand can chip in category incumbents scrambling.